2018-19 #WCChoops Schedule | What We Learned 2/3/19  |  Crumpacker 2018-19 Archives

By John Crumpacker
#WCChoops Columnist

What’s your call, heads or tails?

That describes the West Coast Conference’s Game of the Week with San Diego playing at Pepperdine on Saturday afternoon at Firestone Fieldhouse. With the Toreros at 4-4 and the Waves at 4-5, this is one of the conference’s noted “muddle for the middle’’ games, with both teams striving for relevance and a top-half finish in the WCC.

It has the potential to be a dandy game, as San Diego is 15-8 overall and eyeing 20 wins before the end of the season while Pepperdine (11-12) is trying to reach .500 and double its win total from last season (6-26).

Both schools have top-notch and likely All-Conference players in San Diego’s Isaiah Pineiro and Pepperdine’s Colbey Ross. Pineiro, a versatile senior forward, does a little bit of everything for the Toreros, leading his team in scoring (19.9), rebounding (8.9) and averaging 1.3 steals per game while shooting .389 from 3-point range. Ross is Pep’s sophomore point guard, averaging 18.5 points per game and leading the WCC in assists at 7.1.

If those two players cancel each other out in terms of production, the game will turn on how the rest of their teammates perform. San Diego counters with guards Isaiah Wright and Tyler Williams while Pepperdine looks to the Edwards brothers, Kameron and Kessler. San Diego has been playing at a disadvantage with high-scoring guard Olin Carter III out since Jan. 12 with an injury.

If the Toreros manage to win at Loyola Marymount on Thursday night and again on Saturday at Pepperdine, they will improve to 6-4 in conference with six games to go before the WCC Tournament. That’s a much better place to be than 5-5 or, heaven forbid, 4-6.

In the WCC, the muddle for the middle can be mesmerizing for teams looking up at the top three or four in the conference. Worth watching, in other words.  

What We Think

1. If Gonzaga is to remain perfect in WCC play, it will have to prevail in what is the program’s toughest back-to-back conference games in a long time. Playing in the Kennel, the Zags take on USF (17-5/5-3) on Thursday night and Saint Mary’s (14-9/5-3) two nights later. The Dons and Gaels are both on the bubble to make the NCAA Tournament and should be highly motivated to give a good accounting of their worthiness. Recall that Saint Mary’s dealt Gonzaga a rare home loss on Jan. 18 of last year. It’s been a little longer since USF managed to beat the Zags in Spokane – Feb. 10, 1989, to be exact. Since then, the Dons have lost 29 straight at the Kennel.
2. If the new metric for evaluating college basketball teams is at all accurate and telling, the WCC might have three teams in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012, when BYU, Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s made the field for what some people call a dance but what is, in reality, a basketball tournament. The latest NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) has Gonzaga at 2, Saint Mary’s at 47 and USF 48. The conference also had three NCAA Tournament teams in 2008 with Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s and San Diego.
3. While it might seem a stretch to call an All-Conference player as someone toiling away in obscurity, Pacific’s Jahlil Tripp fits the bill. He was an All-WCC second-team player last season and is no less valuable to the Tigers in 2018-19. Still, considering how far under the radar Pacific basketball is nationally, not many folks outside the WCC are aware of Tripp, with the exception of pro scouts who know his shoe size, what he likes to eat for lunch on Tuesdays and his favorite color outside of Pacific orange and black. Tripp, a 6-foot-5 do-everything guard, is averaging 11.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting .562 from the field. He’ll be playing professionally somewhere when his career in Stockton is over. 

The week ahead
As WCC play makes the turn and heads into the back eight of league play, the most interesting games on Thursday night are USF at Gonzaga, San Diego at Loyola Marymount and Pacific at Saint Mary’s, for different reasons.

How long will the Dons be able to hang with the Zags before the inevitable happens? In its quest to finish in the top half of the WCC, will the Toreros (4-4) be up to the task of beating the Lions (4-5) on the road in what figures to be a competitive game? As for the Gaels (5-3), they have lost two games at home this season. Will Pacific (3-6) make a statement in Moraga?

Saturday’s worthies are Saint Mary’s at Gonzaga, Pacific at BYU and Santa Clara at USF in a battle of long-standing Bay Area rivals. How competitive will the Gaels be in the most difficult place to play in the WCC? The Tigers have the athletes to throw a scare into the Cougars. Finally, the Dons need this game badly to remain in contention for second place in conference.

Telling stat of the week
In 2017-18, Saint Mary’s led the WCC in assists per game at 15.5 with the redoubtable Emmett Naar leading the way. Without the graduated Naar, the Gaels are ninth in conference in assists at 11.4. That’s a little more than eight points per game Saint Mary’s is missing without Naar.